Developers  in Rivers State have decried the high cost  of cement. They said the steady increase in the price of the commodity has affected construction. Cement price across the three major cement companies in Lagos for instance  hovers between N2,650 and N2,700 but same cannot be said of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Checks on the current price regime  revealed that a bag of Dangote Cement which was sold at N3,000 last week now goes for between N4,000 and N4,500, while a bag of Elephant Cement that sold for N2,600 now sells at N3,500, white cement is between N3,300 and N3,500.

The new price regime represents an increase of about N900 per bag, which translates to about 45 per cent rise in a swoop.

A visit to some construction sites  showed that many builders had stopped work as a result of the astronomical increase in this important building component.

It was gathered that the sudden increase in prices of cement became visible during the #EndSARS protests across the country.

Reacting to the development in an interview, a developer lbecheme Kinika said: “Just two weeks ago, I bought a bag for N2,600, only to mobilise for continuation of work today and find out that the price has increased to N3,500.

“How many bags will I buy with the little amount I have now. I will wait till things normalise and I know things will normalise.”

Contributing, Mrs Ngozi Uruakpa, a dealer, lamented that the #Endsars  affected her supplies which led to the increase on the price of her old stock. She advised government to listen to the demonstrators  and kick-start the economy which is almost comatose. She said though she didn’t go out nor allowed her  teenage children to join in the demonstration, she asked the government to reach a truce so that there could be peace while businesses would return in top gear.

A cement dealer in Diobu,  Stanley Madukwe, said the shortage in supply of cement was responsible for the increase in its prices.

According to him, the high cost of transporting cement to Port H arcourt occasioned by the #EndSARS protests led to the increase in the price of the product.

Madukwe, who said he had exhausted his in stock, however, expressed hope that things would return to normalcy as soon as the protests were over.

Worried about the  inadequacy of houses and the high cost of building in the country, a firm, the Pertinence Group, is mulling how to build a house with N3 million. The group, through one of its subsidiaries, RealVest, specially set up to deliver housing to Nigerians with ease, is powering a home delivery initiative tagged HomeVest.

The Executive Director and co-founder, Pertinence Group, Wisdom Ezekiel, said his firm, like some others, was not waiting for the government on this hence, it is initiating various programmes aimed at solving the problem.

According to him, while the firm may not be able to able to solve the entire problem, it is however determined to contribute its quota. One way it is doing this is to provide affordable housing through HomeVest by staggering payment for housing up to seven years.

“It is like paying for your rent and, after seven years, the house is yours. We even allow that once payment of up to 50 per cent, we allow the person to take possession of the house while he continues with the rest of the payment. We try our best to ensure that the payment and house are very affordable, say from about N50,000 to N150,000 monthly payment depending on the location,” he said.

Ezekiel assured that through RealVest, the firm would keep driving the process of home ownership to ensure it delivers “real affordable housing” to the people.

“What we eventually target is how, with N3 million, we can deliver a full house to Nigerians. We have not been able to crack this but we are not relenting and we are sure of achieving this soon,” he assured.

In similar vein, another Executive Director and also co-founder of the group, Sunday Olorunsheyi, regretted that while the government had dwelled on providing solution to the housing challenge, it had not materialised over the years. This, he noted, is perhaps the reason individuals have had to become their own government.

He explained that the HomeVest initiative was one of the numerous products the Pertinence Group has put in place to help solve the housing problem.

“The HomeVest project is one of such solutions we are offering and it has gone a long way in helping Nigerians. We are not essentially in the home delivery business for profit but to provide solution to the teeming Nigerians in need of homes. In providing the solution, we will eventually make the profit,” Olorunsheyi said.

In aiming to attain the N3 million housing plan, Pertinence Group recently merged all its subsidiaries into one outfit. Ezekiel and Olorunsheyi explained that the merger would ensure that cost is maximised and the end result would be the ability to provide cheaper houses.

“Pertinence Group decided to align with the vision it had because, from the beginning it was meant to be a group of companies. We started with the investment arm of the business before even the real estate. We are into real estate but now we realise that real estate needs information technology (IT) to run. Also, the investment arm becomes important because in this age and time real estate business require funding. So instead of running to look for funding outside, our micro finance bank within the group can provide the needed finance. It is more like a backward integration system where the group of companies can maximum its advantage to the fullest. In the end, the people benefit more and that makes us happy,” the duo submitted.

Investors and users of co-working space are apprehensive about the stress in the emergent sector as a fall-out of Covid-19 pandemic. Analysts say there has been 72 per cent decline in the number of users and 67 per cent drop in new membership enquiries within the first-half of 2020. OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports that operators are worried about its changing story and have devised strategies to confront it.

Co-working space is one of the high growth areas in Nigeria’s real estate market. Its growth was driven largely by the emergence of startups and the migration from costly office spaces.

When it started in the US in 2005, it was not much to reckon with but today it has grown to about 30,000 co-working spaces globally with an estimated 1.18 million users. Africa’s large millennial population, according to a new report by Northcourt on Nigeria’s real estate market, contributed to the growth of co-working on the continent and recorded more than 600 co-working spaces with Nigeria ranking highest.

An Abuja realtor, Okechukwu Agu said the Covid-19 pandemic upset the sector with its protocols such as social distancing, face masking and other details to keep safe.

Agu noted that tenants are unable to use and, consequently, pay for space, advising that investors in this space need to significantly adjust their business model and implement measures to continue business as working from the office (WFO) has switched to work from home (WFH).

The effect of this is that the use of office space has reduced with some corporate head offices mandating that as much of 90 per cent of their workforce work from home. This will influence future demand.

“The introduction of hygiene protocols is now mandatory. Co-working has been crippled by social distancing rules adopted to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Lagos, with the largest concentration of co-working spaces in Nigeria of over 60 per cent and a leading part of Nigeria’s co-working sector, is estimated to have lost N300 million in revenue.

To survive, he said, co-working spaces will need to pivot. More people will want to work from home, mid to long-term. Digital networking events are already taking the place of physical meetings and focus is shifting to providing more support for members over the standard space and physical resources.

As the world conforms to the new conditions for doing business, analysts see coworking spaces facing challenging seasons ahead. Corporate Nigeria has kicked the execution of remote working strategies into high gear with some head office complexes emptied of some of their staff.

It is hoped, however, that as large organisations optimise their operations post-COVID, co-working spaces will serve as a welcome alternative. The adoption of remote working post-pandemic is likely to increase, encouraging work from close-to-home co-working spaces where residences are not conducive enough.

A real estate lawyer in Ikeja area of Lagos, Nkem Ogonsiegbe, advised that co-working space investors would need to attract and keep larger and more-established clients looking to optimise administrative costs, adding that companies need to set up a more distributed workforce to better manage employees working from different locations. He said this can only be patronised if there is strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols.

According to him, no employer of labour will want to risk the safety and health of its workers.

He said: ” Operators or investors in the sector may increase their rentals to augment for the loss of revenue from tenants as a result of the observance of the pandemic protocols which require lesser number of people occupying a larger space. They can also attract more clients with competitive infrastructure, discounts etc,” he added.

Shelter Afrique has approved the development of the Kinyinya Park Estate Project, a 10,000 integrated and sustainable large-scale housing project in Kigali.

The estate will be developed in partnership with Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB).

Other partners include Ultimate Developers Limited (UDL), Development Funding Institution (DFI), Eastern and Southern African Trade & Development Bank (TDB), and the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD).

The project is expected to cost  $400 million out of which TDB has approved a facility worth US$150 million to Shelter Afrique to support the first two phases of the project.

Shelter Afrique Board Chairman Steve Mainda said the development was part of its 2019-2023 strategic goals, which focus on achieving development impact on large-scale housing projects to achieve the creation of value for shareholders.

“As a board, we are committed to ensuring that the Company achieves its mandate of providing affordable housing across Africa by embracing viable public-private partnerships such as the Kinyinya Park Estate housing project,” Mainda said.

On the development, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Chimphondah said the sizeable housing deficit in Africa could only be addressed by undertaking large-scale housing development projects.

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“It is the reason our strategy places a premium on Private-Public-Partnerships (PPPs), which we believe are critical to delivering affordable housing. We are also exploring similar projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. We expect to have these projects replicated in most of our member countries going forward,” Chimphondah said.

The Kinyinya Park Estate project is Shelter Afrique’s second large-scale housing development project in Rwanda after the Company commissioned 3000 affordable housing units in Rugarama Park Estate in Kigali in June, last year.

It was conceptualised by Shelter Afrique and the EPC contractor to help address the affordable housing shortage in Rwanda.

with the development of a sustainable urban mixed-use community.

The project will be undertaken in five phases over three to four years, consisting of 10,000 affordable apartments and 200 units of commercial outlets including schools, shops, and business facilities on behalf of RSSB.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the banks’ mortgage loans have rallied to N77.61 billion in three years, according to its latest figures.

In its report, it stated that N19.83 billion was given out in 2017, while N32.09 billion and N26.68 billion were loaned out in, 2018 and last year.

According to the NBS, non-performing loans in the banking sector amounted to N1.05 trillion as at last December.

The bureau also gave the gross loans of the banking sector as N17.56 trillion in the period reviewed.

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The report showed that for the first quarter of 2019, the banking sector gave out N15.54tn of which N1.67 tn was classified as non-performing loans.

In terms of volume of transactions, the NBS report said 893.68 million transactions valued at N48.54 tn were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The transactions, it said, occurred on electronic payment channels.

The report stated that the NIBSS Instant Payments transactions dominated the volume of transactions, recording 342.63 million of the volume of the NIP transactions valued at N29.69 trillion.

Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has signed the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency Bill 2020, as well as the Nasarawa State Mortgage and Foreclosure Bill, into law.

The governor described the two  laws as the foundation for the take-off of the state’s friendly business environment, stressing that without the laws, it would be difficult to attract investors into the state.

“Without these laws, it would be very difficult to invite a lot of investors, who are serious about investment, who understand what investment is, who understand what it takes for resolution of all kinds of issues that come as a result of investment,” Sule said.

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According to him, the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency will facilitate the establishment of a one-stop shop for all kinds of investments, where government will assist investors towards realising their vision.

The Mortgage and Foreclosure Law, on the other hand, will promote liquidity.

“For housing, it’s going to fast- track the process of creating all the legal issues on mortgages and the issue of timely resolution of all kinds of disputes that are likely to happen,” Sule said.

He thanked the government’s team, as well as the Managing Director of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC), Kehinde Ogundimu, and his team, for coming up with the blueprint that led to the signing of the two bills into law.

Earlier, Ogundimu described the event as a milestone, not only for Nasarawa but also for the country as a whole, adding that the signing of the two bills into law was the laying of a solid foundation for investments and greater things that would come to the state.

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie

The United Nations Positive Livelihood Award Centre (UN-POLAC) has decorated the Managing Director of PWAN Plus Business Concerns Limited, Dr. Julius Oyedemi, with its Peace Advocate Award .

UN-POLAC, in a statement, said with the conferment of the award, the Lagos-based real estate player will be involved in “peacemaking, conflict resolution and other activities that encourage peace and positive living” anywhere in the world.

Oyedemi’s appointment was conveyed in letter signed by UN-POLAC Director-General, Prof. Halo B. Eton.

The letter read: “In line with the UN General Assembly’s declaration, POLAC collaborates with UNESCO to commemorate the “Human Rights Day 2020” with the Theme: ‘Stand up for human rghts.’’

In view of the foregoing, the trustees of POLAC recognise that you exemplify these qualities and wish to convey to you, their decision to appoint you an International Peace UN-POLAC Advocate.”

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie

The General Manager, Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA), Funmi Osifuye, has stressed that obeying physical planning permit laws will help avert avoidable disasters such as the one that occurred in Baruwa, Ipaja last week.

He said the building could not have scaled through approval as it did not conform to structures in the neighbourhood.

“There were two schools, already existing in the neighbourhood and that would have disqualified the establishment of such a facility in the area even if they had come for approval,” he said.

Osifuye explained that the agency had, through its district office at Agbado Ipaja, sealed the property during an inspection of structures around the vicinity on September 10.

He further said an ongoing construction that collapsed at Obalende did not have physical planning permit.

It will  be recalled that LASPPPA recently beefed up its enforcement by deploying more town planners to its Monitoring and Compliance Unit and has since been carrying out follow-up inspections with supervising directors and personnel of district offices across local government areas.

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This is to check the level of compliance to enforcement notices issued earlier  and to curb reckless construction of structures at mismatched locations.

Meanwhile, LASPPPA’s weekly enforcement routine continued last week. Some were a follow-up on structures served notices for contravention and stop-of-work to observe their level of compliance.

He said: “Eighty-five structures were inspected with 11 petrol filling stations and 19 other structures that included shopping malls, hotels and supermarkets served notices and sealed at Agbado Ipaja District.

“Others buildings clamped down were at  Igando, Iba, LASU and Ikotun with nine filling stations.”

Also sealed were 15 buildings at Baruwa.